Surprises
by sharp52092
Summary: ROTS AU…Mace Windu asks Commander Vill about a discovery he made in the private office of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine…
1. Mace

**Surprises **

**Revenge of the Sith Alternate Universe**

**Mace asks Commander Vill about a discovery he made in the private office of Chancellor Palpatine's private office…**

**This story marks the beginning of my series of post ROTS alternate universe stories. Which I am incredibly excited about.**

**For those that are reading Scroll II and Personal, I'm working on them right now, so it'll be a few weeks before the next update to those stories. I'm trying to get their endings down, but with school that can be difficult. Though I plan to finish one or both before I do more AU stories.**

**I borrowed some from Stover's novel on this chapter.**

**And thank you to my beta, The Kinetic Violinist!**

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**Chapter One**

**Mace**

He should be going.

He wanted to go.

Perhaps needed to go.

But he was needed here, too.

From the front entrance of the Jedi Temple, Jedi Master Mace Windu watched the ships, from battle to medical to imprisonment, from large to small‑ all finishing loading and then taking off.

He should be going to Mustafar. For what would be called the _Battle of Mustafar_ and, hopefully, the _Final Battle of the Clone Wars_.

Even though the presence of the Jedi was needed at this crucial time

He thought of going and checking for what was probably the tenth time to see if the information he discovered in Palpatine's private office was correct. Yes, it was‑the Jedi Intelligence confirmed six standard hours after the discovery, but Mace still couldn't believe it. He smiled‑ almost.

After three long years, would this battle be it? Was the end truly here? He, the Jedi, and the rest of the Galaxy would know in a matter of hours to a few days.

But for now the HoloNet was in the dark on that information. All of it. The only piece the media knew was that Chancellor Palpatine was dead. Mace would have preferred to keep that information hidden longer, but it was an impossible tidbit to hide from the gossipmongers. Luckily, however, the media was so busy with the shocking story of Palpatine's death that they did not realize the troops they were told were heading to the Dantooine system were, in fact, heading in the opposite direction to the Mustafar system. Nor did they know Chancellor Palpatine was the Sith Lord. For now, they and the rest of the Galaxy only knew he was dead. Which was how the Jedi needed to keep it. If Separatists knew that Palpatine was the Sith Lord…well, it would give away any elements of surprise. The Jedi and clones were counting on just that. Since the Separatists would be celebrating that the leader of the Republic was dead and how it would cripple the Republic, the Separatists would be caught off guard. But the Jedi knew they had to hurry. Too long without a message from their secret leader would send them into a panic and likely locate elsewhere.

While he wanted to see the rest of the troops off, it wasn't the entire reason Mace was here. The Jedi had come across some other information while going through the private office of Chancellor Palpatine. Something Mace prayed for more than _anything _to be not true. But he had to find out for sure and ask one of the troops. This very difficult question he needed to ask someone he knew. Someone he could read. Feel. He searched through the thinning crowds again. Mace did not see or feel many familiar faces. Yes, they all looked the same, but he still saw and felt the differences in each clone he worked and fought side-by-side with throughout the years. Then he saw a new commander of a regiment on the 501st legion‑ Commander Vill.

Mace had fought alongside Vill during the Battle of Coruscant, on the streets of Coruscant near the Senate Rotunda. He had just been made commander a day or two ago.

"Commander Vill," Mace said in detached voice.

Vill walked over a few steps to greet and salute the Jedi, "Yes, General Windu?"

"I have a question," Windu hesitated. He swallowed dryly, "and I ask for an honest answer."

"Yes, sir." Lying, unless need be, wasn't in his programming.

He closed his eyes, and then opened them back up. "Is there a contingency order known as Order Sixty-Six?"

Vill's eyes nearly widened in shock. _How…_ There was no possible way the Jedi‑ any Jedi- could have come across _that_ kind of information. None of his brothers would have said a word. _None _of them. Vill was certain of that. But Vill knew he have to sort that question out later and answer the question he was asked. Assuming there was a later… He hesitated. "Sorry sir," He cleared his throat and straightened his posture, "I can't respond to that question."

He didn't need to, "Very well, Commander." Mace did not look at him, but he did sense the commander's fear. Mace waved his right hand, "You will forget this conversation Commander Vill." Not wanting to alarm any more troops. Vill repeated what the Jedi said, then he was dismissed.

Slowly, Mace walked away. He did not watch the last of the troops board the last ship. Nor did he hear the engines roar. Not even the bright reflections off the ships as they rose and took off in the Coruscanti skies made him look back.

All Mace could do for several long minutes was stare at the ground. But he wasn't really staring at the ground.

Mace ran his fingers across his hairless head. Back to front. Then slammed his fists in a wall. It hurt far worse than the few burns and cuts he received during the Battle of Coruscant, but nowhere near as much as much as what was just revealed.

It all made sense.

The Clone Wars were never an epic struggle. They were never intended to be. What almost happened… is the very reason why they were fought‑ why they existed. The Clone Wars had and always been _the revenge of the Sith_.

Order Sixty-Six was to be the climax of the Clone Wars.

And the Clone Wars were… bait‑ irresistible bait. They took place in remote locations on planets and systems, lands and seas that belonged to other beings and species. Not simply just on Republic or Separatist territory. They were fought by expendable delegations of clones, droids, and Jedi!

Constructed as a win-win situation, the Clone Wars were _the_ perfect Jedi trap.

By fighting at all, the Jedi had almost lost.

With the Order overextended, spread thinner than silk across the Galaxy, each and every one _alone_, surrounded only by the few to thousands of clone troops he, or she, or it commanded. War itself pours darkness _into_ the Force, deepening the cloud that limits Jedi perception. And the clones had no malice, no hatred, not the slightest ill intent that might have given warning. They would only be..."following orders." Mace said aloud.

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**End of Chapter One**

**Next chapter will be called, Obi-Wan. There are three chapters in total.**

**Vill is a character from the EU‑the Dark Times comics. Vill was killed by Vader after the Sith Lord asked if there was a contingency order to kill him. **


	2. Obi-Wan

**Thanks for the reviews and everything everyone! Please keep it up! **

**I have the next several chapters to ****_The Scroll II_**** ready to go, but I am going to finish this story first. There is only one more chapter after this one. ****_Personal_**** I haven't gotten as much work done, I want to, but with school I'm either busy or if I have time, then I'm too tired. **

**And as always thank you to The Kinetic Violinist! **

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Chapter Two

Obi-Wan

"Vill barely moved a muscle," Mace said as he ended his tale.

Obi-Wan stared at Mace in disbelief. That was all he could do after Mace helped him into one of the chairs of the Council Chambers. Stare and sit, and nearly collapse somewhere in the middle of Mace's tale.

What was to come next?

The previous days… how long had it been since he killed the cyborg, Grievous? Three days? A week at most, maybe? Returning home to Coruscant after hearing the Chancellor was dead, it was soon revealed to Obi-Wan that the leader of the Republic was also the Sith Lord. And Anakin had admitted everything‑ including his marriage.

Yes, these last several days had been full of revelations. And Obi-Wan always hated surprises.

That Obi-Wan killed the Commander of the Droid Army, General Grievous, wasn't a shock to his troops or to his fellow Jedi. Apparently everyone but Obi-Wan knew he could do it.

Hours after the General's death, during whatever was left of the Battle of Utapau, Obi-Wan received a message. The Jedi beacon from the Jedi Temple. The message stated: _Chancellor Palpatine is dead. _And to return to Coruscant as quickly as possible. Obi-Wan did so, not as a Jedi, but as a friend. Knowing how such a thing would affect Anakin.

Obi-Wan returned home less than a day after slaying Grievous. He knew Anakin would be heartbroken. He and the Chancellor had been very close. Maybe too close. But the friendship was dear to Anakin, so Obi-Wan never stood in the way of it. Now he wished more than…_anything_ right now that he had. He wished he had fought against Anakin's friendship with the Chancellor. Fought harder against putting Anakin in the situation he had been put in as the Chancellor's representative.

Obi-Wan was informed as soon as he stepped foot in the Jedi Council Chamber that Anakin killed Palpatine. That Palpatine was the Sith Lord, the one they had been looking for.

Anakin also confessed he was more than friends with Senator Amidala, but that was hardly a surprise to Obi-Wan. The Council agreed to make a decision on Anakin's future as a Jedi another time. Though a few disagreed, it could wait. Others seemed conflicted about what to do with Anakin. To Obi-Wan's surprise and Anakin's disbelief, one of them was Mace.

Now, no decisions had been raised or discussed, but Obi-Wan could see the Council making an exception for Anakin. They had done the very same thing for fellow Council member Ki-Adi-Mundi. But Anakin had broken several rules throughout the years, and Obi-Wan knew he couldn't protect his friend this time. Anakin could always join the Altisian Jedi, a splinter faction of the Jedi Order headed by Master Djinn Altis. They held several percepts frowned upon by the traditional Jedi Order, including the taking of multiple Padawans by one master and the allowing of families. However, Obi-Wan also knew the Council would want to take the unborn child of his friends. That child would with no doubt be strong with the Force, but Obi-Wan knew Anakin would never allow that to happen. And Obi-Wan worried such a subject would easily get out of hand.

Yes… There were even longer days ahead than the present days.

The details being revealed of the Palpatine's double life, and the hand‑ both sides of him- had in the Clone Wars. Both out in open and behind the scenes.

Obi-Wan could only imagine how the Galactic community would handle that one. Even he still had a difficult time swallowing the newly discovered information as well.

The voting of a new Chancellor. One that was not corrupt as many in the Senate were.

Hopefully the capture of the Separatists. Then their incarcerations. Then the trials, but the courts were corrupted too. Viceroy Gunray had already escaped sentencing several times. It was very likely it would happen again.

And now this new information‑the truth of the Clone Wars…

Obi-Wan wasn't certain he could handle any more.

Neither could Mace. He continued to rub his swollen knuckles.

"A dark time it is," said a voice at the doorway of the room.

Yoda.

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**End of Chapter Two**


	3. Yoda

**Once again, I borrowed from Stover's novel.**

**This is the last chapter for Surprises, next week I will post the next chapter to Scroll II.**

**Thank you to The Kinetic Violinist **

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Chapter Three

Yoda

With his gimer stick in his right hand, the ancient Jedi made his way into the room. "Revealed to us, much has been."

Master Yoda finally made it back to Coruscant. He had been away on Kashyyyk. He had been unavailable throughout the last several days; even the wookies had been unable to locate the ancient Jedi.

"But Master…don't you see…" Obi-Wan began.

"We let this happen," Mace stated. They had not kept a closer eye on the Senate. They had not protected the Republic. They had failed.

"What we almost let happen…" Obi-Wan argued. How many people they had almost let and truly did let down.

"Stop this! Both you will," The Grand Master poked each of them with his cane. First Mace, then Obi-Wan, leaving each Jedi Master feeling like a Jedi youngling again on that hard, but wonderful first day of lightsaber training.

"This genocide did not occur, and had it…" Yoda said "The Order been decimated before it has." Over three thousand years ago. During the time of Darth Malgus. The green Jedi opened his eyes and just slightly raised his cane up. "Rose again, the Order would have and _will._" Yoda wasn't speaking of what if any more, but _now_, in this present time. "Blind we have been. Mistakes have been made. Yes. _Learn_ from them, we will."

Mace and Obi-Wan could tell there was much, much more to be said.

"The same Sith from a millennium ago, Sidious was not," Yoda looked at each of them. "But fighting that same war the Jedi have been. Training to fight those same Sith the Jedi have been." But they were not the same Sith from the Brotherhood of Darkness or from any of the Battles of Ruusan. "Changed the Sith have. Changed the Galaxy has." Change. Evolution, this had always been the way of life, even to this day.

"The Order did not. The Jedi have not."

The Jedi had spent that same time training to re-fight the last war. The Sith of that time… they were not the same Sith. The Sith had grown. They adapted. They invested a thousand years of intensive study into _every_ aspect of not only the Force, but also Jedi lore itself. All in preparation for what had nearly transpired. The Sith had remade themselves. They had become new.

"Trained these Jedi I have, to become the Jedi who trained me."

N'Kata Del Gormo was the Hysalrian Master who found and trained Yoda along with many other great teachers. They were the Mace Windu, the Cin Drallig, and the Obi-Wan Kenobi of their time. "Long centuries ago‑ but those ancient Jedi, of a different time they were. The old way is not the only way. Changed has the Galaxy." It was evolution, the way of life. "Changed, the Order did not‑ because let it change, I did not." And he almost realized this too late. "But too late it is not."

"Master Yoda‑" Mace exclaimed. It wasn't his fault; it… Mace lowered his head. Maybe it wasn't just the ancient Master's fault. The Korun closed his eyes and nodded.

"Easier said than done, my friends."

The Korun and the Stewjon Masters turned their heads simultaneously. All to see another, all too familiar face. It had been many years since they had last seen this face.

Qui-Gon.

His face and his entire frame was the exact image of his self of his days there beside his fellow Jedi. Only now transparent and emitting a bluish glow.

Now this was a surprise. A surprise Obi-Wan liked for a change.

Mace smiled. _Smiled_. He felt the same way.

_End._

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**Author's Note: I have a few ideas for a fourth chapter called ****_Qui-Qon_****, but I haven't made up my mind. I like the way it ends. For now it shall be marked as finished. But please let me know if I should keep it like this or take another at those ideas I have. Also, if anyone has any ideas feel free to pass them along.**


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